Anyone who wants to be a writer, stop.
Anyone who wants to work in publishing, stop.
Sit down, put your feet up for an hour or two, make a cuppatee and read this.
It far more eloquently articulates what I was previously trying to say about the state of publishing in the currently looming recession, and the implications for those with barely a foot on the first rung.
There are things I remember having a profound effect upon my conception of the world as an artist. Some of them are time-honoured and conventional, such as Wilde’s De Profundis. Other examples some might raise their noses at, such as the first time I properly heard Björk or when I spent a week in Skye listening to little else but Patrick Wolf’s Wind In The Wires.
On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile is certainly one of these things. It’s possibly, for an unpublished writer in the early 21st century, the most crushingly depressing and yet strangely comforting overview of the writing-to-publishing process to be read.
Early attempts at networking typewriters often proved unnecessary and silly.
Image by radiospike photography
Too many writers are currently too focused on being published rather than simply writing, because publishing is their only perceived means of not only marking their success as a writer, but developing an audience. This is not just an improbable method to begin with (as the essay demonstrates), but is currently less likely than ever to work. In short, and as I suggested previously, writers have to find their own platforms. They have to seek out both audience and merit on their own, and on their own terms.
So here’s one particularly nice little shelter for budding bloggers and weary writers alike to huddle under, as recently pinched from a friendly Canadian’s blog.
Six Sentences is an open submissions site and online community where anyone may write anything they wish, so long as it’s in the eponymous six sentences. It’s very similar to another site I once used called 100 Words, though perhaps a little more beginner-friendly by not strictly obligating you to both write and edit every day for at least a month in order to feature on the site, though that in itself is a great discipline for those who need it. I also got in a huff with 100 Words as I stuck to it diligently without missing a single day for a whole year, but lost six months worth of entries when they migrated to the new site, despite my emails as requested that resupplied my missing posts. As a result my Year of Hell remains incomplete, but I’ve been slowly republishing the individual entries here on my own blog.
My little offering to ‘Six’ however, based on a perhaps easily deducible recent event, is here. Feel free to furnish me with as many, or as few votes, as you feel it deserves. Like Post of the Week (which yours truly also often judges), the most popular entries are shortlisted to find an overall winner for each month, but it really, honestly isn’t about ‘winning’ anything. It never was. Sites like this are wonderful little virtual gems – not just as an opportunity to get your voice heard in a climate increasingly hostile to new writers, but to hear others’ and build up a sense of community – something that anyone who’s sought a career in literature will tell you very rarely comes easily. It’s certainly the sort of lifeline that will prove inevitably invaluable to authors already struggling to speak as the ship takes on more water.
I honestly believe there has never been a better time to be a writer. It has never been more possible for a writer to connect directly to a readership that it is now. Opportunities abound, as you have pointed out.
As commented @ 6s, much enjoyed your offering. 6s is where I first went ‘public’ as a writer, and I consider the site a touchstone of my writing community. Glad you found the place… and yes, it is difficult to be heard as a writer – if success means brick-and-mortar, agented, big 5 (4?) pub houses. But is success just means writing the best you can and getting your words out to like-minded folks, then now is the best time to be a writer. Peace, Linda
Very true, Paul. There have been economic/political conditions ripe for pen and parchment before, but that’s been just the problem – it’s not so easy to distribute a single sheet of parchment.
Thank you, Linda, much appreciated. I really do believe that more and more people will start turning away from the increasingly impossible usual publishing process as they limit their lists as a result of the recession. The canny amongst us have already noticed this and are setting up websites such as 6S or online magazines already.
I like 6 sentences. It does have a friendly interactive feel to the site, it’s quite stylish, and it’s a nice exercise in brevity seeing how just much can be said within it.
I feel like, echoing a bit what Paul said, the connecting directly to readers thing that seems more possible as a modern thing. For me – and it’s been so long since I was regularly snail-mail submitting stuff that perhaps I’m just partially forgetting – there feels much more of a sense of immediacy about web submissions, sometimes. About e-mailing with editors, and the possibility for sometimes getting work up super fast. Plus, I feel web-wise, it’s so much easier to check out what out’s there at the click of your fingers. Discovering the voices of people writing now that I like, and in turn looking at other places -they’ve- been published, and checking out the scope of those all seems a much more immediate exercise then trawling magazines at the poetry library to try to find a niche I’d fit into.
(I think the flipside of that is the feeling of internet/zine oversaturation. Which I think -can- happen with the sheer amount of stuff there just is out there.)
Hi Roberta, thanks for stopping by. I think you’re absolutely right in that there can be an oversaturation of online magazines and writing sites, and that this will be something that becomes more pronounced as more writers turn away from conventional publishing and back to their own notebooks.
However, I don’t think this will be a problem. The web is a very big place, after all. Plus the rule of literary Darwinism will no doubt apply – if a site or magazine fails to attract a big enough readership, it will simply disappear in favour of one that does. In many ways this is the total antithesis to conventional publishing – putting it all up there for readers to choose what they most like rather than spoonfeeding them what they’re marketed to like, as selected by a hopelessly random system.
The more successful blogs, ezines and sites will then inevitably be skimmed by publishers to print in book form, though this in essence seems a bit odd considering how popular they already were as an online entity.
I agree with you – there are more opportunities for writers than ever before, but almost dizzyingly so. I work at WordHustler.com- a site that’s trying to organize and simplify the traditional method of getting represented and published. Check it out- I think we’re on to something.
And thanks as always, Ben, for your insightful post!
Best,
Pam
Thanks Ben, I just downloaded that pdf you mentioned above, I’ll have to read it later. Great job on the piece for 6 Sentences. It was very descriptive and touching. You are a remarkable writer Ben, and I am glad you found 6 Sentences and the community over there helpful.
- your Canadian Friend
Hey Ben! I totally agree about writers concentrating too much on publishing. In addition, I’ve seen so many writers become over zealous and end up with an uninspired agent. They write three novels and are dropped like a hot potato and ruin their career before even starting. I spend roughly 3-6 hours per day writing and write because I love to. My goal is to find that one special agent who can help me get published the right way. Quality and excellence comes before numbers. I already have a job and writing will eventually become what I do professionally. And nothing besides death can stop me:)
Hey Bobby. Absolutely – one should write for themselves and because they want to. This is something that sounds so blindingly obvious, yet is somehow so easy to forget. I realised it again myself only recently, and it seemed to free up my mind overnight. Maybe we do find that agent, maybe we don’t, but that should never stop us writing. If we were in it just for the money or recognition, then we really shouldn’t be writing anything more than a shopping list. Your determination is certainly a refreshing inspiration at a time when so many frustrated writers just want to give up!
Hi Ben, I just finished reading “On the Survival of Rats” and found it somewhat negative but I think it’s meant to be a wake up call. The way I see being published and becoming successful is almost like being a pop music star. There are millions of musicians and great bands but very few will ever be huge. The same is true of writers. I believe becoming a well known writer is almost as rare as winning a lottery; it’s mostly a freakish streak of good luck. Many books are really terrible and become massive sellers while truly great ones never do. Nevertheless, there are unconventional ways to be successful on the Internet and maybe even be noticed by the public eye for something other than writing. I’m not a wild eyed writer with outlandish dreams of fame and fortune, I just like to write in my spare time. On the other hand, people who truly believe they will be successful and are willing to never quit have a greater chance than people who don’t believe in themselves.